Stop Fanning the Flames

Ed Husain is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is on Twitter.

Updated August 9, 2012, 10:09 AM

Fully attuned to the direction in which the wind is blowing in Syria, the country's Muslim Brotherhood recently declared the creation of its own militia. It is not alone. The Brotherhood adds its gun-carriers to an array of vigilante fighters ranging from the detested shabbiha of the pro-government Alawites, to a plethora of self-proclaimed jihadist battalions that fight beside the Free Syrian Army.

These rival armed groups are not only fighting to remove Assad from power, but have conflicting visions of what a post-Assad Syria should look like. If their ideological, religious and ethnic divisions were not bad enough, then add to the mix the financial support from neighboring countries for different factions, the unhealed emotions swirling throughout the population of those seeking revenge and justice, and a growing sense of entitlement among many to govern. This combination does not bode well for Syria's future.

Different factions in Syria must work together, while other countries supporting these factions should be wary of the power they yield.

Unless the current trajectory is changed, the country is headed toward an all-out civil war.

Al-Jazeera Arabic has been hosting television programs that discuss the partitioning of Syria among sectarian lines. It is as if this would materialize without more spilled blood. Such fanning of the flames in Syria by Arab broadcasters needs to end immediately.

Popular religious leaders in Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries have increased chatter against the Assad regime on the grounds of it being Alawite, and have been busy raising money and calling for jihad. This rhetoric in mosques and on social media heightens expectations amid hard-liners in the region that Saudi Arabia's clerics will help shepherd Syria's Sunnis toward Salafi Islam. The Saudi government cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this development.

The Iranians and Hezbollah with their networks of clerics and satellite television channels are guilty of fueling sectarianism too, and of supporting the many atrocities of the Assad regime. Sunnis responding to their bait does not make the future for Syria any better. The Turks, Jordanians, Qataris, Saudis and their Western allies have a duty to ensure that their proxies in the country do not unleash a Lebanon-style civil war. But such demands are difficult to make on an angry and vengeful Syrian opposition.

Above all, it is the decision of the Syrian people and their tribal leaders, religious clerics, opposition activists and politicians whether they want to reduce their great country to rubble, or come to a political settlement urgently. Outsiders can do only so much. Syria’s fate is in the hands of Syrians.